Copenhagen and Swisher Keep the C-Store Shelves Anchored as Pouches Surge

Amid all the attention on nicotine pouches, the old reliables of the tobacco shelf — Copenhagen chewing tobacco and Swisher Sweets cigars — remain quietly enormous businesses.

Copenhagen's flavored dips hold the loyalty of a generation of consumers who buy the same can every week, a habit pattern few categories in retail can match.

Swisher, meanwhile, has made the machine-rolled cigar the entry point for whole new cohorts of legal-age smokers, helped by availability almost everywhere a convenience store exists.

The through-line for both is consistency: while the industry reinvents itself on the pouch shelf, these staples keep the lights on and the foot traffic predictable.